Chapter 12: CH12: Food Trucks
The team didn't lead me to Tarrlok's office; instead, they led me to a series of posts with people tied to them. Young men of all ages were tied to whipping posts while a team of men in unified forces armor pulled a whip out of a brine pool. I could smell the salt and knew the whip would sting everyone else. My flesh wasn't so easily damaged, but that didn't stop them from kicking the back of my legs. I let myself fall, and Mako pushed me forward, intent on slamming my head into the post.
I felt an odd sensation of my head impacting the post and hardly felt a thing. That was the problem with using physical punishment to discipline a superhuman. Everything around me was too fragile to harm me. A mere wooden post couldn't do a thing against my qi-hardened skin. They would need wood from the vampire tree for something like that. No one here could safely harvest the stuff.
Perhaps this had nothing to do with my earlier disrespect. However, there was an empty post here for a reason.
"It's good to see the fire nation is up to its old tricks," I said as Mako bound my hands.
A stern voice resounded across the docks. "You are no longer civilians; you are now soldiers of the republic. You have betrayed your sacred commitment and will now face capital punishment for your offense."
Mako went to get a cameraman. "Make sure to focus on him; he's the worst of the bunch."
I gazed at the camera and smiled. "This isn't going to end how you think it will. Some men came up behind me and pulled at my shirt, but they were too weak to rip it." My workout clothes were made from a special fabric that held up in even the most brutal spars. So instead, they pulled it up over my head. Not for the first time, I thought about just snapping my chains and killing them all.
Lessons only stick when there is pain. By allowing this, I let Tarrlok plant the seeds for a revolution. I wanted to know how long it would take before the people of the republic reached their limit. Knowing where their breaking point would help me in the future.
Several whips cracked, and teenagers cried out in pain. When was the last time I was whipped? The memory of a crazy elf wielding a spiked whip came to mind. Any damage inflicted by those spikes bled on despite my regeneration. That was the first and last time I met a whip that could be used as a legitimate weapon. Another crack resounded through the air, followed by screams.
I looked up at the cameraman with a bored expression on my face. Two more whip cracks left some of the men and boys weeping. Some might have preferred to be executed at this point. The last few cracks were met with sobbing.
Mako walked up to me after whipping full of glaring angst, before turning to the man who whipped me. "Are you taking bribes? The rest of these men are sobbing wrecks, but that traitor doesn't have a mark on him. So what are you doing?" Mako yelled.
"You whip him then."
"Enough, get these new recruits back on their feet and to the barracks. The sun will be setting soon, and we need to prepare them."
I felt a disaster coming and couldn't wait to see what happened. Amon was probably going to be a beast, and the only person I was really worried about was out of danger. Someone recruited me to fight beyond my control so I couldn't be blamed for what happened next. This was a dream come true.
Only, the bastard was going to try and cuck me. I trusted Korra despite every word of advice I've ever heard since adulthood telling me not to. Trusting women gets men killed or makes them wish they were dead. A thousand examples of that lesson came to mind pouring from the bowels of the filthiest family courts. The sounds of loudmouth racketeers spluttering and holding scared men in contempt to enslave them.
That wasn't something I had to worry about here. Korra could snap Mako like a twig, but what stopped him from calling in a few of his buddies.
Mako grabbed my chains and unlocked them. "Don't bother going back to Air Bender Island if you survive. Korra will be mine." I spat in his other eye.
He yanked my glasses off and roared as a torrent of fire lit up in his hand. When the flames cooled, my glasses were untouched. Then he smirked. "Be careful; they're hot," Mako said and pushed them back on my face.
No one touched my glasses without permission. This little prick would pay. But, for now, I would hit him where it hurt, his dead brother. "Did your brother beg and try to bargain before the equalists ate him alive? He seemed the type. I bet you heard him crying and tripping over himself to betray you for one more second of life."
Mako took a stance as he prepared to unleash a point-blank fire blast at my face. A strong hand caught Mako's arm before the teen could show off more to the camera. I looked over at the cameraman and winked.
"It's so easy. I almost feel sorry for him," I said before two soldiers stood me up.
"Take this recruit to the barracks with the rest of them."
The barracks was a warehouse full of bunkbeds packed with non-benders like a can of sardines. I sat on my bunk and waited for something to happen. While looking for trouble would have been more interesting, I was invested at this point. I wanted to follow this train wreck to the scene of the crash. So, as the sunset, I sat on my bunk and waited.
A scrawny guy in his late teens approached me. "You're the guy who's with the Avatar; what are you doing here with us."
"Didn't you hear? I'm a non-bender."
"You would think that they might forget to send your draft papers with the Avatar backing you."
"Councilman Tenzin hand-delivered them to me."
"Well, I always wanted to know how the Avatar is in bed?"
I raised an eyebrow. Another man spoke up. "You might as well tell us we are dying together. Word is we aren't being trained as soldiers."
"Not this again; the Republic City Council wouldn't just throw our lives away." One man said.
I could see it clearly. By tossing us to the equalists, they can lower the demand for food and buy time to train their volunteers. The draft was probably to get rid of the undesirable elements of society. I looked around to see mainly homeless men in the barracks to support my hypothesis.
Still, I didn't say a word about our situation, one of my best tools was silence.
"Do you know what weapons they plan to supply us with?"
"Probably sticks and stones knowing the council. We aren't benders, and the soldiers don't think of us drafted as comrades. No one expects to make it out of here alive."
"Then revolt," I said.
"Against trained United Force benders, do you have a screw loose or something. They would burn us to charred bones with fire bending or smash our bones to pieces with earth bending. If we escape, we're dead."
"If you stay, you are all going to die." I wanted to laugh; this was getting good. How long could it really take to stage a revolt? Their backs were already to a wall either die against the equalists or die against the United Forces soldiers. "At least the soldiers didn't eat men alive."
"We have to trust the council; they wouldn't send us against the equalists unless they thought we had a fighting chance. This is our city, and even if we didn't come here by choice, this is our chance to protect it. We are men of Republic City, and we have to protect it."
"Are you a plant of the council?" The man froze.
"No, I'm just a man who grew up here in Republic City, the greatest city in the world."
A massive earth bender stormed into our barracks. "Listen up, recruits. You will walk out of here when I call your name, line up, and get on your designated truck. We will take you to our training camp, where you will be outfitted with a proper kit, and your training begins.
The drivers remained in the trucks the whole time, and I couldn't sense them. "This is our last chance; once we get on those trucks, it's all over," I said.
"No, we should fight for our city." One of the men said.
Korra would be pissed when she found out I let myself be sent to an Equalist slaughterhouse. Maybe getting her some flowers wasn't the worst idea. I had some money to burn, and after I dealt with Amon, we would have a lot of time to ourselves. I could recall that it was six months until the water tribe civil war. In that time, we could go dancing several nights a week, maybe invest some money in the recovering economy, and establish a new government.
That was going to be barrels of fun. I couldn't wait to see the flaws in my government bleed through.
Well, not as much fun as this was going to be. It had been three weeks since the Equalists took the serum; some of them would lose their squishiness. Depending on his diet, I suspect Amon would be tough. On the other hand, my blood was boiling for a real fight with enemies that could damage me.
The trucks took us underground, and I felt like the trojan horse. My enemies were bringing me past the gates to their stronghold, oblivious to their own danger. Every second that passed brought me closer to a good fight. No one I cared about was down here or even in the city. Asami was a passing interest, and Hao Meng was an acquaintance. It would feel good to really stretch my legs and break my enemies.
My fellow passengers looked calm and collected. Did they believe we were going to a training camp? I tempted them to revolt before, but as the Equalist hide-out gates closed behind us, surviving became impossible for most of them. Worrying about them while I fought wasn't an option.
A treacherous voice whispered in my mind that Korra would care. That was true; she would definitely try to save them. But what could I do at this point? They willingly got on the trucks and didn't even bleat as they were taken to slaughter. So what could I do if they were enjoying the ride?"
"Hey, what's the hottest piece of tail you ever had? I'll go first. This fire bender girl wanted to be a pro; I convinced her that I was a talent scout."
"Liar, we've heard that story from a hundred different people. Besides, fire bender girls might be outwardly crazy, but you get an earth bender if you want someone crazy in the sack. They will do anything, including anal."
"Wow, how can you talk about your mom like that." A fight nearly broke out then and there, only for a pounding from the truck to shut everyone up.
I wondered if, on some level, they knew what was happening and chose not to acknowledge it. The only light left was in the truck. I pulled back the curtain to see darkness except for a few dim red lights on the road. My ears still picked up the roar of the engines behind us, but there were no lights on. Those with the serum in their veins were highly light sensitive.
"We sure have been going for a while; where do you think they're taking us." One of the soldiers asked.
I glanced over at the tall, muscular teen with a patchy beard. "What does, they mean?"
"The soldiers taking us to the training camp." The teen said the words like a question.
"Whose soldiers?" I asked.
The rest of the men went quiet. "Did you notice that the man speaking the Republic's praises isn't here?"
"He just got on a different truck." One of the recruits volunteered.
"I saw him, and a few from each group get separated. Their job was done, and they did it remarkably well." Of course, I didn't see that happen, but they weren't here to disagree.
"They wouldn't do that to us. I think you're lying just to rile everyone up. No one would just sell out their own people to be eaten."
I wanted to laugh in their faces, but they were grasping for what hope they could find. A fantasy was better than the truth. I shook my and stared back at them. "So, are you saying you don't want my help," I said the words and waited for their answer.
"We choose to believe in the republic. Even if our lives aren't great, we don't think they would sell us like livestock."
"If that is your choice, then ok, I won't stop what will happen. And thank you for absolving me of my responsibility to you."
"You're welcome," one of the men said, and I chuckled because they would all die now. Because they trusted a republic that sold them as livestock. None of them were willing to believe or even could, for that matter. At that point, the recruits probably knew they were doomed.
The truck looped around and came to a stop. At that point, it was over for everyone. The lenses of equalist armor came into view, and one jammed a man catcher into the truck and caught the man sitting across from me. They jerked the teen out of the truck as another moved to catch me. I dodged the steel barbed neck clamp and punched a hole through the equalist's torso. A spell activated, and call lightning flashed around my fist.
When the equalist fell, I launched two fireballs at the fast-moving soldiers. Fire wasn't more effective on them than normal people, and they were fast. My perception adjusted twice just to keep up with the serum enhanced terrorists. The one I punched through and blasted with lightning struggled back to its feet. A hotkey brought my sword to my hand, and 9ft of metal gave me one hell of a reach.
Roots swarmed at the formerly downed equalist as his body broke itself into a more beastly shape. The equalist threw itself into the truck as I walked away from it. Call lightning was quickly becoming my favorite crowd control tool. Lightning blasted from my fingertips in wide scary-looking arcs of dancing blue bolts.
One of the equalists moved into range, and I swung my sword. My blade seemed to drink in the light from the flames burning equalists as it cut through armor, flesh, and bone. Its sliver blade seemed to grow brighter as the world around it dimmed. My ultimate tool against kaiju seemed to work well against the weak flesh of the equalists. The blade in was barely a sword at all. An elf had only heated and beat the scale from a massive metal kaiju into the shape of a and pounded a handle on it. Even after being heat-treated and reshaped, my sword was still very much a living thing for all intents and purposes.
I wasn't surprised when the bodies the weapon slashed apart dried up. It was in the nature of the blade to feed on qi, even blood qi.
I twisted the blade mid-swing and cut through five equalists in a row spilling their guts out on the floor. Then as I watched, their bodies shriveled as my sword took everything from them. Other equalists approached, and my blade moved closer to them. It wanted to slaughter and feast.
A fireball blasted out from my hand before I pointed to a corpse fed upon by several equalist. Corpse bomb activated, and the body exploded in a shower of gore, throwing the equalists off their feet. While the fight was going well, my blood wasn't really pumping. These weren't fully acclimated; they were all too squishy for that.
I felt something strange wash over me, and suddenly it was like something had taken control of all the blood in my body. "Friend of the Avatar, I hoped we would meet face to face." I looked up to see Amon in his mask, surrounded by his strongest members. My body moved despite Amon's blood bending. While he was powerful, there were limits to what he could do against me. Or that was my theory anyway.
Slowly a green light gathered around me as I powered up and prepared for a real fight.
"You seem confident even though you were sold to me," Amon said.
"The traitors will get what's coming to them as well."
"Of course, I plan to equalize them soon enough. But first, sacrifices must be made for the good of the world. You are different; the spirits gave you an incredible power as they have given me. Together we can change this world for the better." Amon said.
I took a step forward, only for his control over my blood to increase further. Even as I powered up even more and bathed the room in green light, his control increased. My eyes widened at a sudden realization. King fucked up; Amon was stronger than ever due to his blood qi. Worse now, there wasn't a way to put the genie back in the bottle. I still couldn't sense Amon, but to be able to outright negate my qi control, he had to be at least a quarter of my power. If I moved another inch, my blood vessels would start to burst, and then my arteries would follow. First, my eyesight would cut out, and then my organs would start shutting down. Then my regeneration would play catch up.
For the first time, someone from this world put me in a difficult position. That was interesting. A smile spread across my face as my perception changed for a real fight.
Don't forget to check out my author's note and my other story Everyone Is Afraid Of My Giant Demon Goat
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